Has anybody else seen Kick-Ass yet? Can we not agree that it is the live-action vulgar version of Kung Fu Panda? The feminized fanboy has made yet another appearance in a big Hollywood film. While Kick-Ass goes to great lengths to challenge gender roles (the filthy mouthed, ass-kicking little girl. I am unsure how beneficial this representation even is) the film perpetuates the image of the new male. Within the Kick-Ass diegesis this feminized (I do not mean gendered, but instead disempowered and infantilized) male is a product of a society fully engrossed in youtube, social media, and alternate realities. This movie made me wonder why Hollywood has abandoned the Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger type male figure. Who is the modern day action star? Is the decline of this image not concurrent to the rise of gaming culture and social media? For those of you who have not seen Kick-Ass SPOILER ALERT: The two most aggressive and historically masculine characters are killed by then end of the movie. I am by no means saying one representation is better or more productive than the other, but simply wondering where Rambo went.
And speaking of themes and topics from class being repackaged into new films has anybody seen the trailer for Human Caterpillar? If not, it is the story of tourists being abducted in Germany and instead of being harvested for organs they are turned into a human caterpillar by a mad German scientist.
It's important to note that the film is essentially a teenage male masturbation fantasy. They changed the main character's relationship with the girl of his dreams from the comic to the movie, presumably as a way to appeal to a frustrated male audience. In the comic, when he reveals his affections for her, she has her boyfriend beat him up and sends him sex photos to taunt him. In the movie, she accepts him and they have sex right away. Mark Millar's original version is no more progressive -- portraying the girl as a vindictive slut -- but there is something to be said for the way the movie version changes her character to something able to be consumed by the sexually frustrated teenage hero. It's like they took the edge right off of that element of the satire.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I have seen the Human Centipede trailer. The movie will be showing at the Nuart at midnight in a few weeks (I will NOT be in attendance). I imagine a future class in this subject might find the image of tourists joined mouth to anus by a German scientist ripe for unpacking. I don't know the director's motive for making this horror movie, but he has said in interviews that it essentially started as a joke about what he would like to do with child molesters.